STYLISTIC OF JAZZ DRUMMER ED BLACKWELL

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is not the most favorable kind. Not that he is unable to conform to the group s
standard of nonconformity. Certainly he is capable of going as far into orbit as his
companions, but Blackwell s is basically a mainstream talent, building on the past
rather than breaking from it, and it is best viewed against the relief of an
adventurous but not anarchic group. Furthermore, the hotly controversial nature of
the Coleman group has tended to divide the critics and public into two camps. In
this rigid critical atmosphere, categorical damnation or praise of the group is more
common than cool evaluation of the merits of its individual members ( New Jazz in
the Cradle. p.16).
While it is true that Blackwell s drumming style with Ornette Coleman exhibits more
freedom than his work with the American Jazz Quintet (AJQ), his Free Jazz performances were not
devoid of structure, continuity, or logic. Figure 1 represents an eight-measure excerpt from
Blackwell s drum solo on the Ornette Coleman composition Blues Connotation (This is Our
24John Baskerville offered the following description concerning such alternative performing outlets:
One of the methods used to avoid the exploitation and absurd working conditions of
the clubs was to establish alternative venues for performances. Musicians utilized warehouses,
abandoned studios, and the loft apartments of musicians, painters and others to present concert
and experimental sessions. In addition to the lofts, musicians played coffee houses,
bookstores, churches and street-concerts to avoid the clubs. A few ambitious musicians rented
concert halls and community centers to get their music to their audience ( The Impact of
Modern Black Nationalist Ideology. pp.178-179).
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Music. Atlantic SD 1353)25. This excerpt suggests two 4-measure phrases and exhibits a melodic
style akin to the Bebop language of Max Roach. In fact, this excerpt could be effectively spliced
within any number of compositions Blackwell had recorded with the American Jazz Quintet, ca.
1956. He achieved coherence within this particular passage through the combination of rhythmic
repetition and timbral variety. The repetition of rhythmic material is marked by a predominance of
motives which begin on the second half of beat three and conclude on second half of beat two in
the following measure (see motives A , B , C and D within Figure 1).
Figure 1:
While the rhythmic vocabulary within motives A , B , C and D is virtually identical,
Blackwell varied his drum choices, and thus the contours of the drum melody, throughout. Of
25
This particular album also marks Blackwell s recording debut with Ornette Coleman in July and August of
1960.
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particular interest is the culminating note (i.e. the second half of beat two) in measures 1, 2, 5,
and 6: motive A ends with the bass drum, motive B the floor tom, motive C the snare, and
motive D the mounted tom. These subtle pitch distinctions (as well as the combinations of drum
pitches in general) lend a sense of variety; a type of theme and variations format based on the
sing-song style attributed to Blackwell.
The material found in Figure 1 is admittedly the most obvious Bebop-oriented passage
within Blackwell s solo on Blues Connotation. The balance of his solo, however, also features
a consistent tempo, call and response-type motives, and symmetrical phrases based on a
tension/release pattern of high versus low pitches. In other words, vocabulary very much in
keeping with the melodic drumming style of Max Roach, vocabulary not normally associated with
the supposed wild abandon of Free Jazz.
Ekkehard Jost made the following insightful comments regarding Blackwell s drumming
on the Don Cherry album Complete Communion (Blue Note #84226):
As we know, drum solos in jazz (whatever the stylistic area) very often
deteriorate into a show of virtuosity without recognizable thought or direction and
have little or nothing to do with the music. This is not the case with Blackwell.
Building on the rhythmic patterns of the tunes, he develops his solos into variation
on those patterns by playing round them, breaking them up, putting them back
together, superimposing others, etc. In this respect Blackwell s free jazz drum
solos are a good deal less free than the long-winded solo excursions of Buddy
Rich, for example. This is one of the ironies that arise in jazz when the concept of
freedom is used without defining it (Jost. Free Jazz. p.144).
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Figure 2:
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